Religious tolerance

FREEDOM HOUSE REPORT
ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

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Freedom House is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that
promotes liberty and democracy throughout the world. Their Center for
Religious Freedom, located in Washington DC, has published a book which
ranks the religious freedom status of 75 countries which encompass more than 90
percent of the world’s population. 1,2

Newsroom published the following review on the Freedom House
book on 2000-NOV-6:

As an accessible, comparative survey of religious freedom,
the report is the first of its kind, explained general editor
Paul Marshall. The report shows that [religious freedom in] large countries in
particular have been trending downward, especially since the
mid-1990s, potentially jeopardizing a range of human rights
should religious freedom continue to erode, Marshall told
Newsroom.

Center for Religious Freedom director Nina Shea said the
report would be useful to journalists and religious groups as
well as to members of Congress determining where the U.S. should
send foreign aid or bestow favorable treatment. "It may
force political leaders to make sure religion is brought up in
debate," she said.

At present, the U.S. State Department puts out a voluminous
annual religious freedom report as required by the 1998
International Religious Freedom Act.

Shea, who serves on the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom that was established by the 1998 legislation,
explained that a reader would get lost in the government
report’s "welter of detail" without being able to
effectively prioritize information.

By contrast, the Freedom House survey is slim and uses a
grading scale to organize countries along a continuum. A ranking
of 1 to 3 qualifies a country as "free"; a 4 or 5
signifies a country is "partly free"; and a 6 or 7
gains the recipient an "unfree" status. More than 60
scholars from the U.S. and abroad representing a variety of
disciplines and religions participated in the survey.

Shea said the report meets the need for a
"non-government source that can track religious freedom and
be disinterested in the outcome." She expressed concern
that the State Department’s document might be reluctant to
"stir the pot" with certain governments in which the
U.S. has an interest. "Religious Freedom in the
World," she explained, uses a detailed list of criteria --
printed as an appendix to the book -- to measure the religious
freedom of each nation and "lets the chip fall where they may."

Following are some of the survey’s findings:

• Conditions for religious freedom are worsening,
particularly in large countries such as China, India, Indonesia,
and Pakistan. However, India and -- as of last year -- Indonesia
both hold democratic elections. Nonetheless, India’s Muslim
minority and smaller Christian minority have come under
increasing attack in an atmosphere of inflamed Hindu
nationalism, the report states, especially in Gujarat.
Persecution has included destruction of churches, rape, and
murder, among other things. Since late 1998, the report claims,
attacks have increased in number. This fall, for example, a mob
in the state of Orissa killed a Roman Catholic and a nun was
kidnapped in Bihar, an eastern state.

• Contemporary conflict seems to be taking on an
increasingly religious nature. In Indonesia, violence appears to
be marked by escalating religious rhetoric and stated religious
motivation. In 1999, inter-communal fighting between Muslims and
Christians in Ambon resulted in hundreds of deaths. This year
what Marshall called a "new component" has changed the
nature of such conflict, giving it more structure. Thousands of
"jihad warriors" have been "organizing in militia
camps in Java," according to the report. Additionally --
and not included in the survey -- the current
Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shown signs that it, too, is
becoming more religious than formerly, Marshall said, noting
recent attacks on Joseph’s tomb, synagogues, and mosques
within Israel as well as heightened religious rhetoric. Neither
Hamas nor Hezbollah existed 30 years ago, he pointed out.

• Religious freedom is not a Western phenomenon. Countries
like Botswana and Namibia scored higher than Belgium and France,
due partly to an intensifying reaction against so-called
"cults" in Western European nations. In France, for
example, the prime minister and the president together issued a
decree in 1998 establishing an anti-cult task force possessed of
broad investigatory powers. Late last year, the Senate approved
a proposed law that would permit the dissolution of groups that
"threaten public order" or "constitute a major
danger to individuals."

• Nor does there seem to be much correlation between
religious freedom and wealth. The report gave the United States
a score of 1, Saudi Arabia a 7.

• Though relatively free countries can be found on every
continent, those surveyed in Western Europe and the North
Atlantic area all scored from 1 to 3. Latin American nations,
save Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico, likewise scored within the
"free" category. Four of the six African nations
surveyed are religiously "free." Eastern European and
former Soviet bloc countries garnered a range of scores -- from
Estonia, 1, to Turkmenistan, 7. Most of these countries fall in
the middle of the continuum, indicating the currently
transitional nature of their societies. Countries in the band
stretching from northern Africa through the eastern
Mediterranean to West Asia...[exhibit little religious freedom]. Israel rated a 3, the
highest score given among these nations. Saudi Arabia, as
previously noted, Sudan, and Iran received 7s.

• While the report concedes that governing regimes may not
reflect the religious backgrounds of their respective nations,
it nonetheless notes patterns and correlations between
countries’ religious freedom scores and their religious
backgrounds. Countries that are historically Christian tended to
score the highest in the reports ranking, comprising 29 of the
34 "free" countries. Israel and four countries of
mostly Buddhist background also qualified as "free."
With the exception of those under communist control and a couple
of others, Buddhist countries generally scored high. Hindu
countries...[are "partly free."]. Muslim countries qualified as the least
free, with almost half falling into the "unfree"
category and none emerging as "free." Marshall noted
that if the survey had been conducted in 1970, traditionally
Christian countries under communist control would have scored in
the "unfree" category.

Some data from the report:

Canada, the second largest country in the world in terms of land
mass, is unrated. We suspect that it would be given the highest rating, 1,
shared with Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway and the United
States.

Buddhism: Countries with a predominant Buddhist faith covered a
wide range of ratings from 2 to 7 (free, partly free and unfree).

Christianity: All of the countries which received their highest
rating, 1, are Protestant or Catholic Christian. Most of the Orthodox
Christian countries rated a 4 or 5 (partly free).

Hinduism: India and Nepal were give a 5 rating (partly free).

Islam: There are no Muslim countries that received a religiously
free in this report; they were rated 4 to 7 (partly free to unfree).

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Related essay on this web site:

Books on lack of religious freedom:

Paul Marshall, Ed., "Religious
Freedom in the World: a Global Report on Freedom and Persecution," Broadman & Holman,
320 pages, (2000-OCT). Read
reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
According to Amazon.com: "Paul Marshall is an award-winning,
best-selling author of "Their Blood Cries Out" who has an
international reputation in the area of religious freedom. He makes
his home in Washington, DC where he is a senior fellow at Freedom
House's Center for Religious Freedom and an adjunct professor at the
Free University of Amsterdam, the Claremont Institute, and Fuller
Theological Seminary."

Paul Marshall & Lela Gilbert, "Their blood cries out: The
untold story of persecution against Christians in the modern world."
Word Books, (1997) The book mainly describes persecutions of Protestants. Read
reviews or order this book

Nina Shea, "In the lion's den: Persecuted Christians and what the
western church can do about it," Broadman & Holman Publishers,
(1997). The book describes persecutions of both Protestants and Roman
Catholics. Read
reviews or order this book